


Domestic Drabbles

by BaraLinni



Series: A Most Extensive and Largely Unfinished Yu-Gi-Oh! AU [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Arc V Rare Pair Week, Domestic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-29 04:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11432829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaraLinni/pseuds/BaraLinni
Summary: A series of oneshots set in what has been lovingly dubbed The Family AU, in which Leo and Shuzo get married and raise their 6 1/2 children.Written based on prompts for the Arc V rare pair week.





	1. Day 1: Applause

Shuzo smiled at the chatter that surrounded him. Happy, expectant chatter, waiting for him to take the stage. Waiting for him to give the signal. He stepped forward, awarded by a round of applause that died down along with the chatter as he made a small drumroll using his hands on the smooth surface in front of him. He stopped drumming and was met with complete silence. Now for the most exciting part. “Ladies and gentlemen!” he announced, giving his most convincing smile. “You all know what we’re here for, so I say we get right to it! Is everyone ready?” He nodded approvingly at the excited shouts of yes before he bowed his head and lifted his hand, dramatically counting on his fingers as complete silence fell again. “One... twoooo……” He glanced up at the eager faces opposite him and grinned. “Still twooooooo… Three!”

The eager shouts and scraping of plastic cutlery was music to his ears. Shuzo looked on with pride as the four toddlers worked through their piles of cooked vegetables with determined faces, trying their best to maneuver their spoons into their mouths. He reached forward to stop a stray broccoli from rolling off the table, smiling at the concentrated silence that had fallen over the kitchen.

When all vegetables had disappeared from the bowls, though not necessarily into a mouth, it was time for the next part of the ritual. Shuzo caught the attention of the four little girls by placing both his hands on the table. They all copied him, and looked at him expectantly. He started drumming his hands on the table again. “Ooooooooh…” Yuzu, Ruri, Serena and Rin joined in the chant and threw their arms into the air in synch as they shouted the joint ‘YEAH!’. Now all that was left was… As one, the little girls started clapping their hands together and giggling uncontrollably, giving small woops as Shuzo applauded too, praising their skill in the art of handling a spoon.

A small laugh came from the other end of the table. “Must you do this every day?”

Shuzo turned his head and flashed a winning grin. “It works, so why not?”

Leo’s amused smirk grew wider and he filled in a couple of blank spaces in a crossword puzzle. “Fair point. Shun has hidden his peas underneath the napkin again”, he added as an afterthought and looked over at the slightly older, suddenly very guilty-looking child. Leo raised an eyebrow, and Shun stared stubbornly down into his lap. Leo sighed. What was it about five- and six-year-olds and peas? Ray had been exactly the same when she was that age. Speaking of which… “Ray, no phones at the table, please”.

His… their oldest daughter looked up, incredulous. “How’d you notice?”

“I guessed your knees weren’t interesting enough to stare at for fifteen minutes”. Shuzo gave a small, amused snort and Leo smiled reflexively. Shuzo’s laugh was almost scarily contagious. “And Shun”, he added and glanced back at their second oldest, “there really is no use hiding your peas. I will know”.

Shun threw him a last defiant look before resigning to his fate and somehow managing to shovel three mouthfuls of peas into his mouth at once.

Shuzo reached over to ruffle his hair proudly and turned back to the girls. “Let’s cheer for Shun, are you with me?” The girls nodded and threw their little hands in the air with another ‘Ooooh YEAH!’ before they applauded again. Shun smiled as he chewed, and Leo turned back to Ray. “Still no phones”.

Ray gave a dramatic sigh and looked about to protest, but yelped as a cup was knocked over and half the table was flooded with milk. With unimaginable speed, Leo grabbed a dish rag and threw himself forward to contain the flood before it affected the - newly cleaned wooden - floor. He placed a hand on the table to support himself, and heard a questionable sound. Sighing, he inspected his hand. As he had expected, his palm was crowned by the remnants of a squished broccoli. Taking a deep breath, he turned his eyes upward. “If anyone deserves applause today, I’d like to think it’s me”.

He swore he could _hear_ Shuzo’s smile. “Well, that can be arranged. Alright then, let’s cheer for Daddy!” The drum roll started again, followed by the familiar ‘Ooooooh YEAH!’, as well as Leo’s well earned applause.

Leo looked at Shuzo and shook his head in mock exasperation, but he was betrayed by his huge smile. And possibly by the adoration in his eyes.


	2. Day 2: Sensitive

“Shuzo”.

“...”

Leo sighed. “You can’t just sit in a corner forever”.

“...”

“Shuzo, please”. This earned him a quick glance over the shoulder and a pout before Shuzo turned his face back toward the wall, pulling his knees tighter to his chest. Okay, it was one of Those Days. Slowly, Leo knelt beside Shuzo and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he asked in the most gentle voice he could achieve. Coaxing usually worked. He could feel Shuzo’s shoulder relax slightly and waited. They stayed still for a while, silent.

“Ray hates me”, Shuzo mumbled. Finally on speaking ground again. Good.

Leo rubbed Shuzo’s shoulder. “Of course Ray doesn’t hate you”. He was surprised when Shuzo shrugged away his hand and turned to pout at him again.

“Yes, she does”, he countered stubbornly before he turned back to staring at the wall.

Leo was at a loss. “What makes you think that?” he asked softly.

“She said so”, Shuzo replied. “She said ‘I hate you’, straight to my face”. He turned around with a distraught look on his face. “What do I do, Leo? My daughter hates me!”

Leo couldn’t help his heart swelling a bit at how Shuzo wholeheartedly considered and treated Ray as his own daughter, even though she had already been four years old when he and Shuzo had started dating.

Pulling himself back to the present, he placed an arm around his husband’s shoulders and squeezed gently. “You know what children are like, they overreact and say things they don’t actually mean”, he said in his most consoling voice, and pressed a kiss to Shuzo’s temple for good measure.

Shuzo hummed thoughtfully and finally relaxed in Leo’s arms. “Yeah, you’re probably right”. Operation ‘Pull Shuzo Out Of His Misery Mode’: Success. They stayed silent for a while again, Shuzo leaning his back against Leo’s chest, until Leo’s curiosity got the better of him.

“Shuzo, why did Ray say she hates you?”

He felt Shuzo take a deep breath. “I told her she had to clean her room”.

Leo tried his best not to explode into laughter. He really, really tried. But sometimes you don’t succeed, however hard you try.


	3. Day 3: Winter

“No Ruri, do not take off your mittens again, you know you can’t put them on by yourse- Rin, Serena, I’ve told you no runni- Yuzu, put those down!” Leo threw himself after Yuzu and wrestled the scissors from her, quickly placing them out of reach, ignoring her sobbed protests. He had too many other things to worry about. He caught Rin by the scruff of her neck seconds before she slammed headfirst into the doorframe, and used a leg to stop Serena from rushing to the same fate. Trying to singlehandedly dress four excited four-year-olds while also making sure none of them hurt themselves was possibly the most exhausting experience he had ever lived through. Leo glanced at the clock. How long could “a short trip to the store” possibly take?

He looked back down and reflexively did a quick headcount before he reached out to grab a pair of mittens. Then he froze and did a double take. He counted again and gave an annoyed sigh. He was one child short. Now which one… He scanned his immediate surroundings. Ruri was in the process of pulling off her boot, Yuzu was crying by the chest of drawers, reaching her hands toward where Leo had put the scissors, and Serena was sulking in a corner with her arms crossed. Rin then. Of course. Leo sighed and crouched down. “Now listen. Daddy’s going to find Rin. Be nice for Daddy and try to put your overalls on yourselves, okay?”, he said, trying his best to sound authoritative and likeable at the same time, a skill he had yet to master. Ruri nodded, but neither Serena nor Yuzu showed any sign of having heard him at all. Leo sighed and, admitting defeat, turned to engage in this very one-sided game of hide-and-seek with Rin.

After looking through every room in the whole house twice, calling for her all the way, he finally found her squeezed into Shun’s closet, eating candy and wearing the motorcycle helmet Yoko and her gang got her for her birthday. Leo smiled at the sight, despite how stressful his day had been, and somehow coaxed her into coming downstairs. Though he had to promise her that she could wear the helmet, otherwise she wouldn’t have budged. He sighed as he saw the pink helmet bobbing down the stairs, wondering idly if she would outgrow her fascination with motorcycles or if it would keep growing stronger. His  thoughts were dramatically cut short when he entered the hallway and saw the chaos that had been wrought upon it during his absence.

There were clothes strewn all over the floor and every other surface imaginable. A very displeased Ruri was sulking by the door, wearing her overalls but no hat, mittens or boots. Serena was nowhere to be seen, but the sounds coming from the kitchen sounded suspiciously like someone eating cookies underneath the table. Again. And halfway up the chest of drawers was Yuzu, who had apparently realised that you could pull out the drawers and use them as steps to reach the top and thereby reach every parent’s nightmare. The household object you could not survive without, but which could do untold harm if a child ever got a hold of it. For the… propably twentieth time by now, he honestly had no time to count, Leo threw himself forward to snatch the scissors away from the grabby hands and lift Yuzu down from her improvised ladder just as he heard the sound of the door handle squeaking. With a child hanging unceremoniously from one arm and a deadly weapon of mass destruction in his other hand, Leo watched in horror as the door opened and Ruri, who had been leaning against it, started to fall backwards, seemingly in slow motion. Unable to move or make a sound, Leo could only look on as Ruri lost her balance completely and- was caught by a leg sticking through the ajar door.

Shuzo poked his head through the door and smiled brightly. “I’m back~. You wouldn’t believe the sale they were having, I bought like six jars of pickles for the price of two, can you believe it?”

Leo stood absolutely still in the midst of the chaos, child and scissors still in his firm grasp, feeling like the sun itself had just descended upon this earth to personally offer to solve all of his problems. “I love you so much”.

Shuzo laughed and somehow scooped Ruri into his arms along with his three grocery bags, closing the door with a foot. “And I love you too”, he smiled and kissed Leo on the cheek before he looked down and frowned. “Leo, I thought we’d been through this. No scissors near the children”.

Leo honestly did not know whether he wanted to laugh or cry.


	4. Day 4: Sleep

“Daddy?” The sound of the small voice made Leo crack open an eye. Peering through the dark he could just about make out a small shape standing next to the bed. He felt a hand gently shake his arm. “Daddy?”

Leo blinked and tried to remember how mouths work. “Yes?”

The hand was holding onto his arm as firmly as could be expected from a five-year-old. “Are monsters real?”

“Of course they’re not real”, came Leo’s sleep riddled reply. He was close to falling back asleep, but his nightly visitor had other plans.

“Ray says monsters are real. They come at night and eat mean children”. There was a slight quiver to the voice now. No falling asleep for now, then.

Leo tried his best to wake up enough to recognise the voice, but that’s the problem with identical quadruplets: they’re difficult enough to tell apart in broad daylight. He reached out a hand and fumbled through the dark. “You shouldn’t believe everything Ray says...” he said to fill the silence while he found a shoulder, which he gave a reassuring pat in passing, and finally a head. He gently ruffled the hair, looking for… Ah, two low braids. “... Serena”.

“I was mean today. A bit”.

Leo almost sighed. There sadly did not seem to be an easy escape route back to dreamland. He glanced over at the snoring mess occupying the other side of the bed. Why was it that the one who was actually good at talking to children never woke up in times of crisis?

“Will the monsters eat me, Daddy?”

The fear in her voice sparked something deep within him. The need to make sure she knew that everything was alright, that she was safe. Now, how to convey those feelings in words. In a moment’s flash of inspiration, Leo wondered what Shuzo would have said. “They can’t eat you if you eat them first”, he mumbled. When he realised what he had just said he froze and groaned inwardly. He had just confirmed to his five-year-old daughter that monsters not only exist, but eat children. He had also encouraged said daughter to attempt to digest a monster. That would surely give her nightmares for years to come. Leo braced himself, but Serena didn’t say anything. With his eyes having finally adjusted to the darkness he could faintly see her raising a hand to her chin, looking contemplative. Finally, she gave a small “huh”, clearly not able to contest the logic of his statement. Then she turned and confidently marched out of the room, and Leo could finally relax. He turned onto his side, placing an arm across Shuzo’s chest.

He wasn’t sure if he had fallen asleep, but if that was the case he was startled awake again by the sound of several pairs of feet moving at an alarming speed. Confused and feeling slightly sleep deprived, he had no way of defending himself against the shadow that suddenly cannonballed down onto his stomach, knocking the air out of him and making him double over in pain.

“Daddy, Serena says you said monsters are real!” the cannonball exclaimed, somehow sounding rather pleased.

“And that you can eat them!” another voice added.

“I don’t wanna eat monsters”, came a third voice.

“I think Serena is lying!”

“What if they taste icky?”

“I’m not lying! Daddy said it, so it’s true!”

“Monsters taste like cotton candy!”

“No, they don’t!”

“Yeah they do, because I say so!”

Leo, still wheezing with every other breath, turned to the one person in his life who could set this right, his beacon of hope in this sea of despair. “Shuzo… please… wake up”. His plea was met with a particularly loud snort and a hand landing limp on his cheek. In that moment, watching his husband sleep through the end of the world as they knew it, Leo realised that he had never before known true envy. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm his nerves and to make sure that his lungs were still functioning after the brutal assault. Meanwhile, the debate on whether monsters were edible or not, and what they would taste like, raged on. Leo took another breath and spoke. “Listen”. Somehow, that one word was enough to catch their attention, and silence finally fell. This was his chance. He would have to choose his words carefully. Before he could speak, however, there was movement to his side and Shuzo’s incredible bedhead rose from the pillow.

“You can eat monsters, actually. Trust me, I’ve tried it”, Shuzo said and Leo _knew_ that he winked at the end there. There was a blissful moment of contemplative silence before Serena broke it.

“I told you Daddy was right!” she exclaimed triumphantly.

“If Papa says so, it’s really true”. Several concurring hums were heard.

“Monsters aren’t scary if you can eat them”.

“Yeah, we’re way scarier!”

“‘Cause we can eat monsters!”

“Let’s go scare the monsters in our closet!”

“Yeah!” The bed swayed as all four girls clambered down and scurried off to show the monsters who really called the shots in this house.

The door swung shut, and Leo gave possibly the most relieved sigh of his life. Finally some peace and quiet. But why was Shuzo shaking? Without warning, Shuzo broke into laughter, rolling onto his side and wheezing as tears formed in his eyes. “Eating monsters? That’s the best… _ever_!”

Leo gave him a tired look. “I just wanted her to go back to sleep”. That comment only made Shuzo wheeze in a higher pitch, clutching his stomach for dear life. Leo pushed Shuzo’s shoulder in a vain attempt to salvage some of his dignity. “You should’ve woken up earlier! Although given how loudly you snore I am constantly amazed that anything can wake you at all”. There was no answer except a soft snore. Leo shook his head, incredulous and amazed. Well, this battle had been decided, it seemed. He placed his arm around Shuzo’s waist and welcomed the sweet embrace of sleep.

He was woken by an insistent tug on the covers. “Daddy. Daddy!”

Groggy, disoriented and confused, Leo lifted his head. “Whuh?” he managed, trying to figure out if this situation demanded him to wake up completely.

“What do monsters taste like?”

“Cotton candy”, he answered immediately, with all the certainty in the world. He was asleep before the door shut and the “It _is_ cotton candy, I was right!” echoed through the hallway.


	5. Day 5: Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some extra worldbuilding: Yoko is the leader of a (very friendly) biker gang that consists of pretty much every female character from every Yu-Gi-Oh series. They all help out with the kids - babysitting and mostly driving them places, so every kid has their own helmet - but Rin and Yuugo are their favourites. Because Yuugo and Rin love motorcycles so much The Gang take them out for rides all the time just for fun

Shuzo was leaning back against the wall, arms crossed and an amused smile in place, as he watched Leo rushing around the hallway, trying desperately to stuff too many clothes and shoes into too few and too small boxes and shelves. “It’s fine, darling, she’ll probably drop him off outside and be in too much of a hurry to even peek inside the house, that’s how she usually does it”, Shuzo shrugged. “Don’t worry about it”.

Leo’s head emerged from behind an impossibly overfull clothing rack. “Shuzo. I _cannot_ let my ex wife witness this bomb site, my honor is at stake!” He returned to his futile task and Shuzo could have sworn that he heard a woeful ‘Why are there so many shoooes?’ muttered under his breath.

Shuzo honestly did not care if their house looked like it was regularly inhabited by eight people, since it was – in fact – inhabited by eight people, six of whom were still outgrowing their clothes at an alarming speed.

The sound of a motor coming from outside elicited a stressed whine from Leo, who quickly grabbed the shoes still on the floor and chucked them down the hallway towards the open kitchen door. Shuzo snorted and shook his head. He was just about to remark on how having shoes in the kitchen would look even less dignified when the door opened. Shuzo felt lucky that he got to watch Leo’s eyes widen in surprise before his face fell dramatically as a boy who did not at all look like Reiji, whom they were expecting, stepped inside while a motorcycle disappeared from view behind him. The boy, one of Yusho’s sons, held on tightly to his helmet and looked very uncomfortable as Leo narrowed his eyes at him.

Leo still had some trouble trusting Yusho’s boys. Having lived with Zarc and Ray fighting over absolutely everything for the last ten years, and with Yusho’s quadruplets looking eerily similar to their big brother, it was understandable. Shuzo had found Ray and Zarc’s “rivalry” kind of cute, honestly. Leo, on the other hand, had grown incredibly suspicious of all of Yusho’s ‘spawns’, as he would sometimes call them when he was in an especially grouchy mood. The amount of things that had been broken while the boys had been visiting was not helping the grudge. Well, accidents happen and windows can be replaced, but if there was one thing Leo was ridiculously adept at, it was holding petty grudges.

Leo was still squinting at the poor boy and Shuzo realised that it was now time for his favourite thing about identical quadruplets: Leo’s incredible inability to tell them apart. He would still be mixing up his own daughters if they hadn’t bought those bracelets for them. Shuzo could easily tell both their girls and Yusho’s boys apart at a glance, even before Yoko dyed their hair different colours to help out their poor teachers. Due to some sort of “mutation during the embryonal development” all of the quadruplets actually had different coloured eyes, a fact that few people seemed to notice. The one who had entered through the door had streaks of purple dye in his bangs, and grey eyes. Now, let’s see how many tries it would take Leo to guess.

Leo narrowed his eyes further and opened his mouth, but closed it and then opened it again. “Yuugo?” Yuto smiled uncertainly and shook his head. Leo narrowed his eyes so much that Shuzo was surprised that he saw anything at all. “... Yur- Yuya?”

Shuzo couldn’t entirely hide his snort, which earned him a grumpy look from his husband. Ignoring him, Shuzo smiled widely at Yuto and gestured with his thumb. “Shun and Ruri are upstairs”. Yuto smiled at him gratefully and Shuzo ruffled his hair as he walked past him. “Cool helmet. Is it new?”

Yuto didn’t look at him as he answered. “Thank you. Yeah”. And just like that he had disappeared up the stairs. Shuzo smiled. Shy around adults but beaming with confidence around his friends. So like Ruri and Shun.

He was about to tell Leo as much when the door opened again and three more boys stepped inside, none of whom was Reiji. Leo frowned. Two of the boys – Shuzo could tell with a glance that it was Yuya and Yuri – said a quick hello and hurried up the stairs while Yuugo held on firmly to his helmet and smiled brightly.

“Hi! Is it okay if Rin-”

“You’re both just ten years old”, Leo interrupted.

Yuugo gave a small laugh. “Well yeah. It’s not like we’ll be the ones driving, though”.

Before Leo could protest Shuzo decided to intervene with an  ‘Of course’. Yuugo beamed even more brightly and Leo gave him a look that spoke of betrayal. Shuzo shrugged. “She’ll have heard the motorcycles, I’m surprised she hasn’t come running downstairs already”. While he spoke there were hurried steps from behind and Rin came tearing past him, wearing her pink leather jacket and pink helmet in hand. Shuzo ruffled her hair in passing before she and Yuugo disappeared through the door with a distracted ‘bye’. Two motorcycles revved their engines on the other side of the door and Shuzo smiled. “She’ll be the cutest biker in the world”, he said proudly.

Leo looked like he would very much like to have a say in that matter when the door opened again and Reiji stepped into the hallway, dropping his bag onto the floor. Even though he was the one they had originally been expecting, Shuzo was almost surprised to see him. And behind him, very much inside the house, stood Himika, holding another bag. For a moment Shuzo contemplated what a sleepover with Leo, Himika and himself would be like before his keen Parent eyes spotted the small child clinging onto Reiji’s leg and the pieces clicked into place. “I know I said only Reiji was coming, but Reira is so attached to him and wouldn’t let him go”, Himika explained. So this was Reira, then. Shuzo crouched down to get a better look. He had of course been aware that Himika had adopted, Reiji had eagerly filled them in on the details during the process, but this was the first time they had met. Shuzo smiled warmly and Reira looked at him with impossibly big eyes, before quickly looking away and burrowing into Reiji’s leg again, clutching a teddy bear in a small hand. Shuzo felt his heart expand, building another room for this new addition to the family. If only the same applied to real architecture...

“Reiji, why don’t you take your stuff upstairs?” he suggested while standing up again. Reiji nodded and grabbed the two bags and headed toward the stairs. Shuzo reflexively ruffled his hair as he walked past and smiled at how Reira kept clinging to Reiji’s leg as they made their way up the stairs. When they had disappeared out of sight Shuzo turned to Leo and Himika, who were talking in low voices about food and habits and whatnot. “This is the best surprise ever!”, Shuzo beamed.

Leo looked at him with that calculating look he wore whenever he was about to be pessimistic. “We don’t even have a bed for-”

Shuzo silenced him with a wave. “We’ll get one, then, no problem! We already have spare mattresses to… spare”, he winked and smiled proudly at Leo’s small snort at his pun. “The girls’ room is already full and Ray is a… teenager”, he shuddered for comical effect and saw Leo hide a smile behind his hand, “but Shun won’t mind another bed, he’s been sharing his room with Reiji this far”.

Himika looked satisfied with this and after a few pleasantries and reminders she declined their offer for tea or coffee and was on her way. Leo muttered something about coffee and wandered into the kitchen, with Shuzo following him lost in thought. Leo assumed his usual position by the coffee machine, arms crossed and staring authoritatively at it to make it brew faster. Still with a far-off look on his face, Shuzo sidled up next to his husband and placed an arm around his hips. “What’re our savings like?”, he wondered aloud, making Leo turn his attention from the alluring brown liquid to arch a questioning eyebrow.

“Why?” Leo asked when Shuzo did not elaborate.

Shuzo shrugged. “I just thought it might be about time we added some more rooms. The girls’ll soon want their own space, I think. Shun won’t want to share with Reiji forever either. And now there’s Reira too…”

A laugh made its way over Leo’s lips. “I know you said when we started dating that you’d always wanted a big family, but I could’ve never even imagined this. Eight children in one house? That seems a bit too ambitious even for you”.

Shuzo looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yes, you’re right. Maybe two houses would be the best solution”.

Leo gave a mighty snort and Shuzo joined the laugh while the coffee brewed and the sound of something being knocked over echoing from upstairs, followed by accusing voices and thumping footsteps. Business as usual, in other words.


End file.
